Update: Well, shi*, the broadcast media's over-the-top jumping on Hillary for being a human being today is making a liar out of me (see post below). See Pundit Nation's "I think this is ridiculous." "Admit it. She's right." So much for my thesis, the media is the foil, but will it be enough of one?
The problem Hillary Clinton faces in this campaign is that she has no clear political foil in the Democratic primary. No crazed, impeach-Clinton haters, no misogynists, no Rick Lazio.
In Sidney Blumenthal’s The Clinton Wars (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), Blumenthal chronicles the rightwing Clinton haters’ defeat after defeat.
Among the most satisfying passages from the book is that of Hillary Clinton’s knock-out punch of Long Island Congressman Rick Lazio, a Mitt Romney-esque, say-anything-to-win opponent for the 2000 New York Senate election.
Writes Blumenthal (pp 695-697): “On September 13, the candidates (Clinton and Lazio) met in a debate moderated by the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert. … Russert played a tape from January 27, 1998, in which Hillary said that she believed her husband when he told he hadn’t had an ‘adulterous liaison,’ as her interviewer put it.”
“’Regrettably, it was proven true. Do you regret misleading the American people?’ asked Russert.”
In the same debate Lazio dramatically invaded Clinton’s physical space, and attempted unsuccessfully to bully her: “(Lazio) whipped out a piece of paper from his suit jacket, held out a pen in his other hand, and marched over to her.”
Blumenthal went on to describe how a too-demanding-in-tone and disrespectful Lazio literally pounded his podium, took repeated inaccurate, hypocritical shots at Clinton, while she maintained her cool and counterpunched Lazio with an agreeable, well-reasoned, short rejoinder.
That debate sealed the deal for the voters of New York and they elected Clinton 55 to 43 percent weeks later.
Writes Blumenthal: “According to a poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News, Lazio’s lead of 43-36 among suburban women in June had become a Clinton lead of 54-38 (after the debate). Russert’s embarrassing question, Lazio’s invasion, and Hillary’s composure were decisive. Actually seeing her fend off overbearing men made these women identify with her.”
But for Hillary Clinton today, she is a political giant (though not overbearing herself) seemingly aiming shots at underdogs fighting against the odds. That is a political narrative that will not work for Hillary Clinton or anyone else.
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